


The crow and her dragon

by WishaDream



Series: Control Shorts [8]
Category: Control (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Femslash February, Fluff, Post-Canon, Useless Lesbians, also recalls moment when got call to the foundation, and emily is the hoarder, dylan still sleeping, emily recalls time in hiss nightmare, jesse is a crow, jesse keeps bringing emily gifts, just trying to make emily smile, pining without realizing that's what you're doing, polaris finds the usless lesbians amusing, spoilers for main game and dlcs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:53:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29315154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishaDream/pseuds/WishaDream
Summary: Jesse keeps bringing Emily random gifts, things that she thinks Emily will find interesting. Emily does, but not nearly as interesting as the reason Jesse keeps bringing her things.
Relationships: Jesse Faden/Emily Pope
Series: Control Shorts [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2119476
Comments: 8
Kudos: 54





	The crow and her dragon

**Author's Note:**

> My friend gave me this idea after seeing the ID card scene in the Foundation DLC

As Head of Research, Emily had a lot of things to keep her occupied. Just because the Hiss had been eradicated from the Old House didn’t mean her work on researching them was done. And there were a hundred other things she had to occupy her mind.

A thousand things.

New safety measures to set up to ensure the Hiss never returned. At some point she had to look into how the HRAs actually worked. Darling’s full notes on them were still missing. She wasn’t sure they’d ever find them. Darling had a habit of not writing everything down.

If she was honest, she was a little overwhelmed with all that still needed to be done. Though she had a full team working under her there was still a lot left for her to do. So much to do and so little time to do it in. She didn’t think she’d ever catch up to the level of knowledge that Darling had on the Old House.

Thoughts of all she still had left to do filled her mind each day when she came to work, when she left for home, when she went to bed. There wasn’t a moment she wasn’t thinking about work. Sometimes it filled her mind so fully she couldn’t think about anything else.

She seemed to be the only one on her team with this problem as she heard her assistant talking on the phone with someone about an upcoming Broadway play she was excited to see.

“Dr. Lake, we don’t have time for this. You are at work right now and this isn’t work discourse. Can you please focus?”

The woman looked perturbed as she hung up the phone before turning back to her work.

Emily turned back to her own work, a report she was writing up for the security team on the Hiss. It mostly contained knowledge Jesse had gained while in the field, some reports from security, and a few of her theories on the creatures.

As she typed out the female director’s name she paused, her thoughts stalling as she thought about the woman.

Jesse wasn’t like any of Emily’s other bosses. Was unlike any other directors. She was the first to jump into danger. The first to take blame when something went wrong. The last to leave an area when someone was in trouble. She was strong. Passionate. And completely perplexing.

For instance, Emily couldn’t understand why the woman kept visiting her offices. Trench hadn’t checked in on Darling half as much as Jesse checked in on her. And it wasn’t because she felt the need to keep an eye on her. It was apparent that Jesse trusted Emily with her work. In fact, she had said on several occasions that the only reason she understood anything that went on in the Old House was because of Emily.

“You are my brain, Emily. Arish is my fist and Dylan is my heart.”

Emily smiled at the memory; her head lowering as she shyly turned her face away from where Dr. Lake was sitting so she couldn’t see her expression.

Too busy trying to keep her face from flushing she didn’t notice someone else had entered the room. She didn’t notice them until they set something down on her desk.

The person was Jesse, who looked rather pleased with herself.

Emily’s eyebrows lifted as she looked from the object to Jesse.

“What’s this?”

Jesse was practically vibrating with energy as she said, “I found it in Logistics. It was just hanging on the wall.”

Emily’s smile was soft as she picked up the object, a painting of the former Director Trench. Half an image of Trench, with the other half having merged with the image of the new director, Jesse

“Wow, this is both creepy and amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this happen before. And you said you found it in Logistics? I wonder how this happened.”

“It might have something to do with the shifting of the House. How much do we know about the director’s image? I remember right after I took the gun I started to see paintings of myself up on the wall. Does the House replace the old director’s image when someone else takes over?”

Emily pursed her lips as she thought over the question, “I hadn’t given it any thought since Trench was the first director I had. But it is an intriguing question. I’ll have to see if there are any notes on this happening. If you find more like this,” she frowned as she looked at the image again, “You might consider throwing them into the furnace.”

Jesse laughed, “Will do.”

Turning back to her research she lost herself in work as the world continued on around her.

The door to the lab creaked as she turned to watch Jesse sneaking into the room.

It was day later. Maybe two. Even without the lockdown Emily found herself losing track of time.

“Jesse.”

The woman looked surprised that she’d noticed her so soon as she paused in her movement, “Oh.”

“What gift have you brought me today?” Emily sounded amused like it was something she’d come to expect from Jesse’s visits, though the woman did visit her without bringing a gift.

Still, it was a nice surprise when it happened, and today it did, as Jesse set a roll of toilet paper down on the desk.

Emily’s eyebrow arched, “Um, I don’t—I don’t know how to respond to this.”

“I found this in a bathroom that had a connection to the Astral Plane.”

Emily’s eyes widened, “Here in the Old House?”

Jesse nodded. “I found it in the Collapsed Department.”

Emily stared at the toilet paper with wonder, unsure if she should touch it, as she rested her chin on the desk to get a closer look at it.

“Fascinating. I wonder how this happened.”

Jesse’s shoulders bobbed with a shrug, “No idea,” her smile crooked to the side, ‘I figured it was something you’d be interested looking into.”

“Oh, yes. Very much so. I would very much like you to take me there in the future.”

‘Looking to snag your own personal restroom.”

Emily laughed as she moved the roll to the other side of her desk, “It would be nice. Dr. Lake likes to take long bathroom breaks as she tries to enact the full catalogue of her current favorite musical.”

Her smile faded to a frown as she glared at the page in front of her, “Speaking of, where did that woman go? There is still so much to catch up on.”

At her side she noticed Jesse’s hand lift, lingering for a moment just near her shoulder before returning to the woman’s side.

“I know you’ll get it all eventually.”

Emily gave her a grateful smile.

Jesse always knew just what to say to put Emily at ease.

They balanced each other out well.

While Jesse acted more on instinct, going head first into situations she thought she had to resolve all on her own, Emily liked to plan everything out in great detail. That wasn’t to say she didn’t have her moments of acting on instinct, but it came after great study and planning ahead. Even her plans had plans as she liked to know all the variables in a situation before moving forward.

Pragmatic was a word her teachers had used in school.

“She likes to do things at her own pace.”

Cautious and reserved were other words she’d heard people use about her.

_What word would Jesse use?_

Probably cool and collected.

Little fazed Emily. Even when presented with the strange things that filled the Old House she tended to only focus on the thing that was most pressing. If she couldn’t explain something in the moment, she put it to the back of her mind for later.

That was what she had done when Jesse had called her to the Foundation. Or, not Jesse.

When she’d received the call she had been sitting in the board room catching up on all the research on the Hiss. She had heard a voice or experienced a feeling, it was hard to recall now exactly what it had been that had given her the impression that Jesse needed her.

Jesse was confused/surprised when she’d found Emily in the Foundation. Said she hadn’t called Emily. It was strange, but it hadn’t been the most pressing issue at the time. At the time she’d filed away the strange occurrence to ponder on a later date, “later” never having come.

There was always something more pressing to keep her from looking into what exactly had “Called” her to the Foundation.

Had it been something like a Board call from Jesse to her Head of Research? Were they connected since Emily had been promoted?

But if that were the case wouldn’t Jesse have also called for Arish when she was going up against Marshall?

No. Jesse wouldn’t have wanted to put Arish and his team in danger. The fear of losing anyone else, like she’d lost her family, colored most of Jesse’s decisions.

_I don’t have time for this_

Emily shook the thoughts from her mind as she reminded herself she had more pressing issues to look into.

Turning her attention to a collection of files Darling had collected she started to separate the collection into two groups: one group of things that were important for her to know about and a pile of things she would have to look into later.

She frowned when she noticed the first pile was higher. But it was so hard to know what was important. Anything could be vital to the safety of the Old House and its occupants.

Working with Darling had been as frustrating when he was around as it was now that he was gone.

She had never liked being kept out of the loop on things. Did not like secrets. Especially not when she felt like she could be a help with the things Darling had been working on.

_Why wouldn’t he just let me in?_

She loved learning new things. Her whole life she’d loved looking into things that no one could explain. Things no one else understood. Things other people gave up on saying “it’s not for us to know.” Those were the things she wanted to dig deeper into.

She had so many theories on different things, theories she had not felt comfortable sharing with Darling.

She didn’t have that problem with Jesse. It was almost strange how comfortable she felt with sharing her thoughts with the woman. It seemed to be the same case for her as Emily had been the first person Jesse had confided in about Polaris at the FBC.

Thoughts of Jesse and Polaris reminded her of the time she’d been trapped in the Hiss nightmare after Hedron had shut down.

She’d been stuck in a loop where she was back working for Darling. As always he was keeping things from her.

She’d ask him questions and find herself facing a closed door. Literal ones. Locked ones.

Eventually she found Jesse, the new Director.

“If I can just get some idea about what Darling is up to maybe I can help. You’re the Director, can you do something?”

Jesse’s smile was cold, off, as she told her, “It’s on a need to know basis and you don’t need to know.”

Emily was frozen to the spot as she watched Jesse walk into a room with Darling. The door closed as she heard them talking, “Emily doesn’t know anything.”

“She’s incompetent.”

“We should get rid of her. She doesn’t have any idea what she’s doing.”

“She’s a danger to people. She can’t protect anyone. And she never knows what she’s talking about.”

Even now she had to remind herself it had just been a dream. It had felt so real at the time, but it had just been an alternate world created by the Hiss to break her.

Before they could Jesse had saved her. Had saved everyone.

She was always doing stuff like that.

_But who saves her when she’s in trouble?_

___

“Goggles on.”

As those around Emily put on the safety gear she pressed a button, hearing the hum of the machine as it stated up, the sound growing louder with the energy build up. When the gauge showed it was to the desired power levels she pressed another button as a second part of the machine started to glow, the light growing in intensity as everyone around her lifted their hands to add an extra layer of protection as the light let out one final bright burst before everything went dim again.

It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to normal light levels before she turned to face the crowd of scientists and Jesse.

“We’re thinking this can serve as a defense against any future incursions from the Hiss. We’re going to set these up in areas that might be weak to reentry. If it senses a buildup of Hiss energy it sends out a burst of light which is calibrated to a similar frequency as the HRAs. It should cleanse any Hiss.”

Jesse smiled as she pulled off her goggles, blinking for a moment as she looked around, “I think you just blinded me with science.”

Emily frowned with concern, “The goggles should have protected you. If you are still experiencing--.”

‘Emily, it’s okay. I was just trying to make a joke.”

Jesse’s grin put Emily at ease as she felt her pulse lower, “Oh. Oh yes. Of course.” She smiled, “Very funny, Jesse.”

Jesse let her explain more about the project before she had to leave for other Director duties.

“Oh,” Jesse stopped as she turned back, “I found this.”

Emily held out her hand as Jesse placed a rock in it. Jesse looked like she was waiting for Emily to say something. To react.

“Oh, it’s…interesting.”

Jesse beamed, “Right. I thought you’d like it. I found it in the quarry.”

Emily’s brows shot up as she looked back at the rock. “You mean the Old House quarry?”

Jesse nodded, “I’ve only seen the rocks as having one shade of dark grey, but this one has these red lines. I’m not sure what it means but I thought you’d find it interesting.”

Emily nodded, her mouth hanging open as she stared at the red striations in the rock. She rubbed her thumb against them, thinking it might be some kind of rust, but no, it went all the way through the rock. “I’ve never seen anything like this. I wonder what caused it.”

Jesse rocked on the balls of her feet with a pleased smile on her face, “You’re the scientist.”

Emily’s own smiled cocked to the side as she wondered what had Jesse feeling so accomplished.

“This is very interesting. Thank you for bringing it to me.”

“Of course.”

After discussing some things with the scientists on the project she returned with the rock to her lab.

She paused as she set the rock down on her desk.

Her lab.

Her desk.

It wasn’t that long ago that she’d still thought of it as Darling’s lab.

Darling’s desk.

When had it started to feel like her things?

Picking up the rock, she took it to a cabinet at the back of the room. It had once been filled with random artifacts Darling had been storing; she’d since cleared them out, returning them to Langston. Now she used the cabinet to store the random objects Jesse brought her. Things like this rock.

Opening the cabinet she set it inside, pausing for a moment as she looked over the rest of the collection. There was a poster from the Oceanview Motel. The ID cards from the Foundation. A set of cat ears Jesse had been gifted from a Lucky Cat statue. A roll of toilet paper from a bathroom connected to the Astral plane. Everything seemed unrelated to one another except for the fact that they had all been gifted to her by Jesse. Things she’d thought the Head of Research would find interesting.

Seeing them all together Emily realized, like Darling, she had her own collection.

At the words her mind started to play out the lyrics to a song from a musical she’d heard Dr. Lake listening to, “Wouldn’t you think my collections complete? Wouldn’t you think I’m a girl, a girl who has everything?”

At the question she let out a forlorn sigh as she thought about Jesse and her crooked smile, “No.”

“You receive another gift from your crow?”

Emily frowned as she looked back at Dr. Lake. The woman was sitting at her desk, booting up her computer as she was just coming in for her shift.

“What?”

Dr. Lake typed in her password, sounding half distracted as she replied, “Your random collection of junk.”

Emily frowned at the term.

_It’s not junk._

“Doesn’t the director realize you already have enough work? I don’t know why she keeps giving you that stuff. Is it her passive aggressive way of reminding you of all the things still left to fix? It’s not like any of them are really that important. Like, who cares if there’s a painting of her and Trench merged into one. If she’s really that curious about it she should get one of the science interns to look into it.”

Dr. Lake sounded annoyed. Was it on Emily’s behalf, or because of concern that Emily would eventually assign her the “extra work” of researching the various artifacts?

Whatever the reason, Emily didn’t see it that way. Jesse wasn’t giving Emily the items to remind her of all the things left to study. It was more like Jesse saw something strange, thought Emily would find it interesting, and brought it to share with her.

Emily closed the cabinet before turning back to her own desk and work.

“Do you think crows are trying to court the humans they give their random gifts to?” asked Dr. Lake more to herself than to Emily.

The thought made Emily’s heart flutter as her eyes drifted back to the cabinet. They were not really “Gifts.” Though Jesse did seem like she’d thought of Emily with each one.

“Emily will find this interesting.”

“I wonder what Emily would think about this.”

“This is weird. Emily would like it.”

Her heart fluttered at the thought of having someone thinking so often about her. But it was nothing to get worked up over. Jesse was nice like that. There was no deeper meaning to her actions.

Or so she told herself. But after only five minutes of working she found her eyes drifting to the door as she wondered when Jesse would come through. When she would come visit her again.

_I don’t need any more gifts. I just need you._

___

**[Jesse’s side]**

The Hiss were finally gone from the FBC and things had started to slow down. For some. For others the workload only seemed to have increased.

Jesse was reminded of this as she paused outside the door of the Research offices.

Inside she heard Emily snapping at her assistant, “This isn’t really work discourse, can we please focus?”

As Jesse entered the offices Dr. Lake was turning to focus her eyes on the computer, a sour expression on her face. At another table Emily looked to be stress typing, so focused on her work that she didn’t even notice Jesse’s entrance at first.

She looked beyond stressed, her well-kept hair slightly out of place. As she watched her, Emily let out a stressed groan before pressing her hand to her forehead.

_She looks miserable._

As Jesse thought about it she couldn’t recall the last time she’d seen Emily smile longer than it took her to greet Jesse. Sure, she still got excited about discussing work and all the new things the research department had discovered, but as soon as that was done the smile would fade from her face like it had never been there.

Both women had a lot on their plates, but seeing Emily like this reminded her just how much more pressure she had on her. Not everyone had accepted her promotion as easily as they had when Jesse had been made director. There were still those who felt like they had been passed over for someone less qualified. People like Underhill.

Jesse imagined that put some undue pressure on Emily, both from the outside and some self-imposed pressure. She totally seemed the type to hold herself to a higher standard than most.

The last time she could recall Emily looking at ease was back in the Foundation when the two had been playfully bantering about old ID cards. Joking about Emily starting a collection of IDs of past employees of the FBC.

In her pocket, Jesse felt the object she was keeping there bump against the desk as she approached Emily’s side. Pulling it out, she slid her finger into the key ring so that as she let go of the object it hung down in front of Emily’s face.

Emily looked startled as she jolted back from the bright yellow duck hanging in front of her. She looked even more surprised when she turned to see Jesse standing behind her.

‘Jesse. When did you get here?”

“Just now. Did I tell you about the rubber duck OOPS I had to chase down?”

Emily’s brow furrowed as she thought for a moment, “No, I don’t believe so.”

Jesse’s smile grew as she said, “Well, it looked just like this one. Without the keychain, of course.”

Emily’s lips curled at the edges, “Of course.”

“And, you know, it was regular rubber duck size.”

“So, six or seven feet.”

Jesse laughed, “More like ten. But yeah, it had the ability to teleport around.”

Emily’s eyes widened as she leaned forward in her chair, “You mean like how some of the Hiss would teleport about the battlefield.”

“Huh, yeah, I guess.”

Emily’s eyes shifted to the side as she thought about this, “Could those Hiss have attuned to the duck’s abilities? Perhaps they were past agents who had been affected by the duck.”

Jesse shrugged, “Sounds like something worth looking into.”

The woman nodded thoughtfully, turning back to her desk she started typing out some notes. As Jesse started away the woman called to her, “Do you mind—can I keep the duck? As a physical reminder about the research I’d like to do when I have less pressing projects to work on.”

Jesse looked down at the rubber duck still held in her hand. She had seen the yellow duck while walking the city earlier in the day. It had reminded her of the OOPs and she’d purchased it on a whim, deciding she’d leave it with Dylan to help brighten up his room.

But it seemed like Emily needed it more.

_Dylan will understand. And he’d probably have preferred the pink duck. I’ll get him that to make up for this._

Smiling, she set the duck on the edge of Emily’s desk before giving her one final smile as she left the room.

  


  


The next time Jesse entered Emily’s office she was surprised/happy to find the rubber duck hanging from the woman’s desk lamp.

Again Emily didn’t notice her at first, too focused on her work to hear anything outside the click clack of her fingers on her keyboard. She didn’t look up till Jesse had set something down on her desk.

Emily did a double take that made Jesse chuckle as the woman asked, “Is it Halloween?”

Jesse smiled as she picked up the item, placing the cat ears on Emily.

_Adorable._

“No. I just got them as a gift from a Lucky Cat down in the Foundation.”

Emily looked panicked as she quickly took them off, “Are you sure they’re not dangerous.”

“Of course. I would never put you in danger, Emily.”

“Oh,” Emily looked from Jesse back to the cat ears in her hand, “If they were a gift, are you sure the cats want you to give them away?”

Jesse shrugged, “I think they would be cool with it since I’m cool with you. And hey, maybe they do have some latent abilities that could be fun.”

“I don’t know about that, nya.”

Jesse covered her mouth as she smothered a laugh. Emily kept her face neutral for only a moment before she let out a snort laugh.

“No, no, what if it makes you talk like Catwoman from the old Batman series. I’m not just pussyfooting around, meow.”

The two played around with cat puns for a time before Jesse left Emily to her work.

  


  


Jesse couldn’t be sure why she did it, but every time she saw something that made her think of Emily she picked it up.

It was a habit she had picked up after the Foundation. After she’d found the ID cards that had elicited Emily’s nerd excitement and joy for collecting interesting things.

After that, anytime she saw something she thought Emily might find interesting, she brought it to her. Each time she got a similar reaction from Emily, she felt a ball of electricity buzz in her chest. A buzzing that made her feel like she could levitate without the AI.

After each item she told herself it was enough. That she didn’t need to bring Emily anymore things.

She didn’t want to bury Emily in random gifts.

But then she’d see a rock at the park with an outline of a leaf in it and think, “Emily would like this.”

And Emily always did. “Wow, I haven’t seen one of these in ages. Where did you find it?”

She was sure one day she’d find something that Emily didn’t enjoy. Something she had no interest in as she reminded Jesse, “I have a lot of work.”

But that day had yet to come.

One day Jesse came into Emily’s office, gift in her pocket. Emily had her back to Jesse, hadn’t yet noticed her presence.

As Jesse came further into the room she noticed the woman was standing in front of a cabinet. It was open and as Jesse stepped to the side she saw it was filled with all the things she’d brought Emily. ID cards, the rock from the quarry, a poster from the motel.

Seeing Emily had kept everything she’d ever given her made the ball of electricity in her chest double in size as the surge filled her body. She felt in that moment that she could run the length of the Old House and not feel tired.

“Jesse.” Emily was wearing her usual bright smile as she turned back to find she’d entered the room.

Jesse had always assumed that Pope was this happy when greeting everyone. Then she’d observed her with others and noticed how rigid and professional she was with them.

When she saw that she wondered if it was because they were her coworkers, people she was in charge of and felt the need to remain cold and professional with. Like how Dr. Underhill was with everyone. But while Underhill was cold with everyone, Emily seemed genuinely excited to see Jesse whenever she was around.

She could have been faking it. Feeling like she had to be warmer with her boss. But if that were the case it wouldn’t have been so easy for them to slip into fun banter.

It seemed more like, with Jesse, Pope was able to relax. To joke. To be playful.

Even when Emily started out serious and professional, she could not seem to maintain that way of talking for long as she’d eventually slip into her energetic banter and quick talking.

The contrast with the clipped way she talked with others compared to how she talked with Jesse made her stomach flutter with confusion.

_Why does Pope act so different around me?_

And why was it just as easy for Jesse to relax around Emily?

Seeing Jesse’s eyes were on the contents of the cabinet, Emily looked amused as she inquired, “You have another gift for me?”

Hearing the question, Jesse found herself feeling self-conscious as she slid her hand out of her pocket.

“Uh, not today.”

Emily’s brow lifted as her eyes drifted down to Jesse’s jeans. “Then what’s that?” She pointed to her pocket, “Or are you just happy to see me?”

She was wearing that playful smile that made Jesse’s skin tingle.

Seeing something on Jesse’s face, Emily’s smile dropped into a frown as she stepped closer, “Jesse. Is everything okay?”

Jesse felt her foot slide back as she moved away from Emily. “Uh yeah, I just…I just remembered I have somewhere else I need to be.”

She could see the objection forming on Emily’s lips as she turned to leave. Pausing at the door she turned back, letting out a heavy sigh as she stepped up to Emily.

“I thought you’d find this interesting.”

Emily held out her hands, but Jesse found she couldn’t bear the thought of having her fingers brush against Emily’s before she was forced to pull away. She set the object onto the nearby table before turning and heading out of the room.

She really needed to figure out why she kept feeling this need to bring Emily gifts. Perhaps she’d been infected with something.

The worry over that was pushed out of her mind as she recalled the image of Emily standing in front of the cabinet containing all her random gifts. Like her own personal treasure trove. A hoard of gifts that a dragon might keep.

_I better stop before it becomes that bad._

Polaris flashed as Jesse frowned.

_I can stop. Just watch me._

It only took five minutes before Jesse spotted a dog bobble head on a desk in the abandoned offices that looked like Trench’s fursona.

Emily would get a kick out of it. She shoved the object into her jacket pocket as Polaris immediately reacted.

_Shut up. No one asked you._


End file.
